


Unexpected Places

by PeroxidePirate



Series: One Small Change [3]
Category: Tortall - Pierce
Genre: AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-12
Updated: 2010-04-12
Packaged: 2017-10-08 21:57:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/79911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeroxidePirate/pseuds/PeroxidePirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Training at the palace, Kel -- disguised as Keldan of Mindelan -- has heard rumors about a woman warrior. She wants to know if they're true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The top floor of the furthest wing of the palace housed misfits and mages, high-ranking exiles from foreign lands, and those who were officially under royal protection but could neither be trusted not to be an embarrassment among the nobles nor left to their own devices in Corus.

It was to this floor that Kel made her way, one morning. She didn't quite sneak, for she was a squire, and she had her knight-master's badge to prove it – although perhaps Sir Raoul of Goldenlake didn't know exactly where Squire Kel was going just then.

As Kel made her way down the hall, she peered at the nameplates on the doors. These were embossed brass, unlike the slates where the names of pages and squires were chalked: residents here stayed for years, often decades. Numair Salmalin, Daine Sarrasri, Lindhall Reed, Onua Chamtong, Buriram Tourakom.

Kel stopped in front of the last door, steeling herself. This was the woman she'd heard so many rumors about: she had come to Corus as the bodyguard of the princess who became queen, and she was – as far as most people knew – the only true woman warrior in all of Tortall.

Now or never, Kel told herself, and knocked on the door.


	2. Chapter 2

The woman who answered the door was short and solidly built, with dark hair braided back from her face. She wore a tunic over breeches so full Kel at first took them for a skirt, and the belt at her waist bore sheathes for several daggers.

She looked up at Kel, eyes wary but proud. “What is it?”

“Buriram Tourakom?”

“Yes...”

Kel hesitated, regretting her decision. She had no right to seek this woman out. But she was already here. “Squire Keldan of Mindelan.” She bowed, as she would to a noblewoman, though Buriram did not curtsy or offer her hand. “I was hoping to talk with you.”

“Why?” the woman asked. When Kel didn't answer immediately, she moved to shut the door. “I'm not interested.”

“Wait!” Kel said, in desperation, as she pushed at the door. “You once knew my patron, Lord Alan of Trebond.”

Buriram froze, door half open, and looked at Kel with careful scrutiny. Her sharp black eyes took in every detail of the tall, muscular squire standing before her. “Alan of Trebond,” she said, as though lost in memory. “That's different. You might as well come in.”


	3. Chapter 3

The small room was crowed with books, scrolls, weapons and household items. “Squire, you said?” Buriram moved aside a heap of fabric, clearing one side of a wooden bench. “Sit. Does your knight-master know you're here?”

“Not exactly,” Kel admitted. She made her way to the bench, careful not to knock anything over, as Buriram sat in the one chair that had been clear all along. “He gave me the morning off, and I...” She shrugged. “I wanted to meet you,” she finished lamely.

“Here I am.” Buriram spread out her hands. After a pause, she continued. “So you know Alan of Trebond?”

“I was raised at Trebond,” Kel explained. “I was fostered there, after my mother died. I know Lord Alan quite well, my lady.” She put the faintest emphasis on the word 'lord,' certain that Buriram would pick up on the fact that they both knew her patron's true identity.

“Call me Buri.” Suddenly she grinned, her eyes lively. “So she did it again, did she?” She reached across the space between them to grip Kel's bicep. “Look at you! Much more convincing than 'Alan' ever was – does anyone else know?”

Kel shook her head. “Only folk from Trebond – Coram, Lord Alan, and a fellow named George.”

“That rascal!” Buri laughed. “I'm glad you found me, squire. We'll have to spend more time together.”

Kel found herself grinning, too. “I hope we can.”


	4. Chapter 4

“You're not afraid to be seen with me?” Buri asked, as she and Kel left the archery courts one afternoon.

“Should I be?”

Buri shrugged. “Alan always was. Guilt by association, or something.”

Kel shook her head. She was determined to keep her secret, of course, but it seemed that each day, she learned some new dimension to her patron's paranoia. “Do you think I'm likely to have that problem?”

Buri looked up, at the tall, solid squire beside her. “Not particularly,” she admitted. “But why would a normal young man want to spend time with someone like me?”

Kel had the urge to tuck a wayward piece of hair behind Buri's ear. “You really don't know?”

“I don't,” Buri grumbled.

In answer, Kel kissed her. Buri was still with surprise for a second, and then her lips parted, just slightly, and Kel felt her smile.

“Oh,” Buri said, when they drew apart.

“Do you understand, now?” Kel asked. “Was that convincing enough?”

“Nearly. But maybe you'd better do it again.”


	5. Chapter 5

Kel had had flirtations, even romances, with girls before. Whether it was genuine affection on her part, or just a piece of the charade of being Keldan of Mindelan, she wasn't entirely sure. In the end it didn't matter: they teased and kissed and flirted, and at a certain point, she had to push them away or risk her secret coming out.

Buri was the first one to know the truth. And so it wasn't long at all before they were spending nights in each others rooms, and Kel's mind and body were ready to burst from all the new things she experienced.


	6. Chapter 6

“Look at you!” Kel kissed Buri's fingertips as she bowed. The woman curtsied, carefully lifting the skirts of her red gown. “You're beautiful.”

“Stop it,” Buri ordered. “I'm just dressed up like a peacock. Something made her majesty decide I might be fit for polite society, after all.”

“Maybe it's the fact that you've left your rooms a few times this month?” The K'mir woman's reclusiveness was legendary, but her romance with Squire Keldan had brought her out of her shell a bit. “Anyway, I'm glad you're here. Looking at you will give me something to do while I distribute drinks.”

“You're impossible,” Buri griped, with a look that promised to get Kel back later.

Kel was already looking forward to it. “I know.”


	7. Chapter 7

“You're using me,” Buri accused, when Kel had kissed her in the doorway before drawing her into the room and closing the door. Other doors were open on the hall where the squires resided, and any number of Kel's friends and rivals could have seen them.

Kel crushed the other woman against the closed door, mouth tracing her jaw and then her neck. “Do you want me to stop?”

“Yes, actually.” Buri pushed her away. “It's a horrible game. What happens when someone finds out?”

“No one is going to find out.” Kel reached for her again. “And since when do you want to stop? You thought it was funny...”

“That was before I started falling in love with you,” Buri snapped.

Kel crossed her arms over her chest. “I never asked you to love me!”

“No, you only asked me to come to your rooms and let you kiss me in public--”

“All of which was fine with you, until today,” Kel argued.

Buri glared at her, gaze dark with disappointment. “I don't like what keeping secrets is doing to you!”

“This is what I am,” Kel answered, with hard finality. “If you don't like it, I guess you'd better go.”


End file.
